Isaac didn’t know how long Taylor had been gone before he noticed. He had gotten so caught up in trying to control everything in the studio that he couldn’t really blame himself for losing track of one brother. At least he knew where Zac was, although he was beginning to suspect that Zac might be sleeping with his eyes open for as little as he had spoken or even moved since he left the recording booth.
Blaine was quiet too, but in a way that didn’t bother him as much as Zac’s quietness. Producers seemed to come in two types, as far as Ike could tell. The kind who couldn’t shut up about their awesome ideas, which usually weren’t all that awesome, and the kind who spoke up very infrequently. Of course, the second type could either be brilliant or totally brainless. Blaine hadn’t proven himself to be anything yet but very judgmental – without saying more than about ten words, total.
Jude and Rio, on the other hand, were talking enough for everyone else. They seemed to keep arguing the same things over and over again, beating more dead horses than he thought he and his brothers had ever done. He looked to Zac for help and Zac just shrugged.
“All I’m saying is that the guitar part isn’t strong enough on this song – it needs something more powerful to offset these lyrics. If you’d been here when we were putting the lyrics together, you’d get it,” Rio said.
Jude rolled his eyes. “And who exactly was putting those lyrics together, again?”
Rio looked ready to slap the other man, but Jude barely seemed to notice and kept plucking mindlessly at the guitar resting in his lap. He seemed content that he had made his point and was ready to finally end the argument.
Isaac wondered what that was all about, but he was really not brave enough to ask. Instead, he turned to Blaine, hoping to finally get something useful from him. “What do you think about it? I’m totally willing to go back and add a stronger solo in, if that’s what the song needs.”
Blaine stroked his chin for a moment, staring off into the distance. Finally, he replied, “Personally, I think you may want to give some more thought to the whole composition. I’m not totally sold on the lyrics yet, and I can’t make a good judgment on the guitar until I’m certain about what you’re trying to tell me with the song.”
Jude let out a low growl and stood. “Forget it, then. I’m done for tonight. I’m not getting paid just to stand around here, so until you guys can nail down some lyrics… I’m out. Wake me up when you’re ready to try this again.”
With that, Jude grabbed up his guitar case, slung both it and the guitar over his shoulder and stalked out of the room. An odd silence descended over everyone and it was at that exact moment Isaac noticed Taylor’s absence. Had Taylor been there, he would have been reassuring everyone that they could work it all out. He would have been chasing Jude down the hall, offering him smiles and cheerfulness. Isaac couldn’t do it. He couldn’t be so peppy and positive when the whole thing was a mess. As much as he hated to admit it sometimes, he needed his brother.
“Look, I’m gonna go find Taylor,” Isaac said, scanning the room to look at everyone’s still shocked faces. “If the two of us can figure something out about these lyrics, we’ll keep hammering away for a while. But otherwise, I think we may need to just call it a night.”
Before anyone could reply to that, not that he really expected any sort of reply, Isaac turned and stormed out of the room. The more he thought about it, the angrier he was that Taylor had deserted them, especially since he had a pretty good idea where he had gone – or at least who he had gone to.
Someone really needed to slap some sense into that boy, and Isaac had a sinking feeling it was going to have to be him.
He stomped down the stairs, hoping that he would be able to find Taylor in one of the rooms down there. He really didn’t want to start searching through bedrooms, but that was always a possibility too. When he neared the parlor, he heard a loud voice and decided to check there first.
As he rounded the corner and walked through the parlor’s large doorway, he saw that Remy was standing at the window, one hand on his hip and a frown on his face. He held his phone at a slight distance from his ear, and although Isaac couldn’t made out the words, he could tell the voice on the other end was loud and angry.
“Yes, yes I know… I can guarantee that you do not in fact hear any – because the studio is soundproofed, Mrs. Cobalt… yes, soundproofed… I understand… there is no need. No, you absolutely do not need to – Mrs. Cobalt. Mrs. Cobalt?”
With that, Remy stabbed a button on the phone and tossed it across the room. It landed with a thud on the opposite wall, barely a foot shy of Isaac.
“Oh, I’m sorry – I didn’t see you there, Ike,” Remy said, his eyes going wide as he turned to face his guest.
“Sorry, I wasn’t eavesdropping. I heard a voice and I thought maybe Taylor was in here. He slipped out of the studio earlier and I haven’t been able to find him yet,” Ike explained.
“I’ve got a pretty good idea where he is,” Remy said, his mouth a thin, tight line.
Isaac groaned. It was just as he feared. As if on cue, he was suddenly assaulted by the shrill sound of a woman laughing, and he could only imagine such a sound would have come from Poppy. No sooner had Isaac determined this but Taylor and Poppy came into view at the doorway of the parlor, arm in arm.
“Oh, Ike. I don’t suppose you guys need me back, do you? I figured you’d be working on the guitar stuff for a while…” Taylor trailed off, giving Isaac a look that somehow managed to be hopeful and just a little bit smug.
He wanted to smack Taylor. He really, really did. It took all of his self-restraint to hold himself back. Getting kicked out of Remy’s house for smacking that look off his brother’s face wasn’t really on Ike’s agenda for the weekend.
“Look, whether we’re done or not, you can’t just walk out like that. It would be nice to have the entire band in the studio,” Isaac said.
Taylor rolled his eyes. “Seriously, we were getting nothing done. The arguing doesn’t get a song recorded. I only skipped out once you and that Jude guy actually started to get something done. You didn’t need me for that.”
“You could at least let us all know where you’re going before you slip away. Although, on the other hand, I’m not sure I really wanted to know in the first place,” Isaac said, trying to refrain from insulting Poppy further. Truthfully he didn’t know her well enough to make the kind of judgments he wanted to make. But he did know Taylor, and that meant he knew all too well the kind of woman Taylor went for.
Taylor leaned down to whisper something in Poppy’s ear and she nodded in obvious agreement with whatever he had suggested. His smile faded away as he turned back to Isaac.
“Forget it. I’m not arguing with you any more tonight. I think we all need to just chill out – have a few drinks, veg out, go to bed, whatever. We can get some more done in the morning. We’ve got all day to focus on the music tomorrow. Diving right in tonight when we could have just… socialized a little was just putting ourselves under too much pressure.”
Isaac thew his hands up in frustration. “Alright, fine. Whatever. We’ll break for the night. I don’t know what Zac’s doing up there alone with Jude and Rio at each other’s throats, anyway, and Blaine being just this side of useless. I should probably go rescue him.”
“You do that, then,” Taylor replied, wrapping his arm tight around Poppy. “We’re going to get fresh drinks and then resume our game of pool.”
With that, Taylor and Poppy turned and exited the parlor, cuddled quite cosily against each other. Isaac could do nothing but stare at their retreating forms and shake his head. He had lost control of the entire night. It wasn’t like he harbored any delusions that he really controlled the band, but it was frustrating when they all seemed to be going in different directions that just couldn’t seem to be reconciled.
Isaac looked to Remy for help, but the man only offered him a shrug. With a sigh, he decided to make his retreat back to the library. Maybe he would try some Russian lit after all. At least that would be easier to figure out that how to deal with his brothers.
Upon reaching the library, he was happy to see that it was empty. Some time by himself, without anyone arguing with or around him, would be very pleasant. If nothing else was accomplished during this trip, he would at least get in a rest and relaxation in. Given his recent break-up, which he’d mostly blamed on the stress of recording, he really needed that. With that thought in mind, Ike poured himself a drink from the mini-bar and picked up the book he had selected earlier, but not had time to do more than flip open.
The thing Ike liked best about those silly mystery stories was that nothing really happened. Oh sure, there was usually a murder or maybe some other sort of serious crime. But it was never gory and detailed, and the solution to it all just sort of fell into the protagonists’ lap. It was just so easy and oddly comforting to read.
What wasn’t comforting, however, was the thunder storm that continued to rage outside the mansion. A long, loud roll of thunder made Isaac shiver, and the following flash of lightening only made him curl up further in his chair. Just as soon as the storm had illuminated the room with bright yellow light, it was plunged into darkness. Isaac dropped the book and immediately groped for the arms of the chair, needing to feel something sturdy and at least relatively immobile in his hands.
He wanted to stand but he couldn’t bring himself to. The faint light from outside that streamed in through the picture window wasn’t nearly enough to give Ike the confidence to think he would make it across the room without tripping – probably over nothing but his own feet – and falling.
A sound at the door frightened him. Footsteps – followed by a loud thump, which was then followed by an equally loud curse.
“Fuck!”
Isaac recognized the voice and manged, just barely, to relax.
A second later the door opened and although he couldn’t make out the figure as anything more than just average sized and male, he strongly suspected it was Zac.
“Who’s there? Tay? Ike?”
Yes, definitely Zac. Ike released his death grip on the chair’s armrests and sighed deeply. “It’s me. Just me. Tay’s… otherwise occupied, I’m afraid. At least he was before the lights went out.”
Ike imagined he could almost hear Zac’s eyes rolling. “Of course he is. I got tired of waiting for you to get back with him and after I had to practically pry Jude and Rio off each other, I decided to give up on getting any work done. I think they went looking for Remy, though…”
In the eerie quiet, another set of footsteps approaching the library was easy to hear, and both Isaac and Zac instinctively turned toward the doorway, as best they could judge, even though there was little chance of seeing anything. To Isaac’s surprise and relief, he could see a dull glow as the door eased open.
Within a few agonizing seconds, Remy appeared, illuminated by the candlesticks both he and the maid – Ike still hadn’t managed to catch her name – carried in their hands.
“Well, this makes things a bit more exciting, doesn’t it?” Remy asked, a rather maniacal grin on his face.
Zac folded his arms across his chest. “Does this happen often?”
“Oh, only in really bad storms,” Remy replied, holding out a candle for Isaac to take. “Sorry, I couldn’t find enough batteries to give everyone flashlights. I guess you’ll have to make do with candles. I think there are a few more candles in all your rooms, but you might want to double up just to be on the safe side.”
“Great. Just fucking great,” Isaac grumbled. “Any idea when the power will be back?”
“No clue. Phones are out, too. Looks like even cell phones are down, though that’s really not surprising this weather,” Remy replied with a shrug. “I’m going to make sure nothing in the studio was damaged when the power went out. Could have been a surge or something. I’d suggest you guys just settle in for the night.”
With that, Remy turned and strode out of the room, whistling softly to himself. He seemed to be enjoying the power outage far more than any sane person ought to. Then again, Isaac had no proof that Remy was a sane person.
Isaac sighed. This was going to be a long, long night.
Zac frowned as he watched Remy walk out of the room. Gwyn stayed behind, looking quite scared as she walked to him and handed him a candle.
“Are you afraid of the dark? Don’t like storms?” He asked.
She shook her head. “Never liked storms. Not one bit. I guess they have their purpose but…”
“I don’t like them either,” Zac agreed. “I doubt I’ll be able to sleep at all, but it’s not like there’s anything to do around here with no power.”
“Well…” Gwyn replied, looking down. “Maybe it won’t be so bad.”
She looked like she wanted to say something more, but was holding herself back. Zac watched as she turned and scurried out of the room, biting his lip as he tried to figure out what she could mean.
Zac didn’t give himself more than a few seconds to think before he hurried out the door to follow her. He knew if he gave himself even a moment’s delay, he wouldn’t go through with it. He’d never been quite the flirt that Taylor was; he was really too shy for that sort of thing. But this was just one weekend. He could surely afford to take one little chance, couldn’t he?
“Gwyn, wait!” He called after her, hurrying down the hallway in pursuit of her retreating figure.
She turned slowly and Zac followed the light of her candle.
“Umm.. I was just thinking,” he said, then cleared his throat and tried to build up his courage He could go through with this. He had to. “You can, umm, stop working soon, right? For the night?”
“I guess I can, yeah,” Gwyn replied, looking a bit confused.
“Well, I was just thinking… if the storm keeps you up, too, maybe we could keep each other company?” Zac asked and the question tumbled out of his mouth nearly as one word.
Something strange flashed in Gwyn’s eyes for a second and her lips turned down in a frown that she quickly seemed to force into a smile.
“Yeah, I guess we can. It might be late, though… but if you’re still up I’ll be down tidying the kitchen and dining room for a while. Meet me down there in an hour or so?”
Zac smiled with relief. “Good. That sounds great, then.”
Gwyn returned his smile, then turned to leave. Zac watched her retreat down the hallway as long as he could, until the glow of her candle disappeared around a corner. Maybe tonight wasn’t going to be so bad after all, he thought. At least one good thing might come out of it.